Change Your Image
sachchidanandd
Reviews
Maska (2020)
Shirley shouldn't act
Positives:
- Concept: I really liked the idea of surrounding the move around generation gap and the typical battle between chasing your dreams vs finding what you are good at. We need more movies like these, instead of typical chase your dream Bollywood style movies.
- Acting by some actors: I found Prit Kamani a refreshing presence. He knows how to keep the audience captivated and the same time, puts himself in different situations pretty well. Manish Koirala again proves herself as why she is one of the finest actresses rom 90s. Her screen presence made me miss my mom and that is a testament to her acting skills.
- Setup: Really liked the set design for cafe. It feels authentic from all angles, including the customers.
Negatives:
- Plot: The second half of the film, when the lead has to undergo transformation wasn't convincing at all. It almost felt like some of the moments were forced into the plot. The whole subplot of lead's romance with Shirley Setia was totally unconvincing, which brings me to biggest flaw of the movie.
- Shirley Setia: She might be a good singer, but as an actress she flopped pretty badly. The garden moment was supposed to high point of the character, but she couldn't bring out the emotions, neither can she bring out her emotions towards Rumi in the bar scene. Please Shirley, go back to singing, you are way better at it.
- Unnecessary sequences: There is a sequence where Romi goes nude to his audition, that sequence doesn't lead anywhere and feels like a wasted scene and it isn't clear to me what this scene was supposed to prove.
Just like somebody else mentioned, it is a feel good movie, but don't expect this movie to be one of the best movies you have ever watched. For a platform, that gave us drive, this is a still a way better movie to watch.
A Star Is Born (2018)
Same stuff , again and again and again....
There are films that become classics and there are films that just try to mimic the classics. This film comes in second category for me. To begin with it is a musical drama and my issue with this film isn't its music, (yes, it has some really good songs, but isn't it expected given that we have lady gaga in lead role?) my issues are the drama and plot.
For most of the part, nothing happens in this film. In the middle, I was so bored of repeatedly seeing the couple making out, that I actually was thinking of walking out on this movie. Then, there is the story: which we have already seen in so many other movies and it offers absolutely nothing new. To top it off, this film doesn't even try to present that part in a proper way. For example: there are no twists at all. There is a scene where Bradley Cooper walks towards Lady Gaga in bathtub while carrying glass of drink and we know they are going to fight. Their fights, mind you, don't even last longer. They fight and then come together a couple of scenes later. There are no bridging sequences in between.
Bradley cooper portrays the self-destructive protagonist decently, but at a time comes off as an emotionless jerk who has no romantic feelings for his lady love, until we reach the climax. On the other hand, Lady Gaga comes off as selfish and dumb protagonist who is too dumb to figure out that her manager is a jerk.
Climax although is pretty decently written and last half an hour of the movie is decent.
Introduction of the humor through lady protagonist's dad was totally unnecessary. We are told to accept the backstory of Bradley Cooper through his manager without actually giving decent screen time to his father. It felt like that part was totally forced.
If you are a lady gaga fan or want to see Bradley cooper doing half-decent job, go watch this movie. Otherwise, you can listen to songs on Spotify or YouTube.
Suits: 25th Hour (2016)
Suits is no longer the show that it was...
Suits season 5 was all about downfall of a king named Harvey Specter. He was a superman(and he still is, perhaps??) that can change the outcome of game by pulling tricks out of his hat and use his super manipulative powers to achieve desirable results. Season 5 on the other hand proved that he has weaknesses, he has shortcomings and no matter whatever he tells to Donna or the entire world, he can 'loose'. This episode underlined it.
When suits was at season 1, it displayed all the elements that can be seen in almost all generic TV shows. Season 5 turned that all upside down. Suits is no longer the show that it once was and it has changed forever. Will fans accept this change or not, will be heavily decided by season 6 and how writers will get all the characters out of this apocalypse.
Back to the episode, this episode was certainly one of the best TV series finales. It doesn't take the predictive route of protagonists somehow pulling over a win in the finale and getting rid of problems, but rather it makes the protagonist(Mike Ross) pay for his actions. In real life, actions have consequences(this is the theme that suits is following from 'Donna arc') and suits takes that difficult route in this finale and executes it comprehensively. Sending Mike Ross to prison may not be liked by few people, typically the ones that prefer classic television setup, but even they can't ignore that it was a revolutionary change.
Although, episode wasn't only about Mike and Harvey. It was also about the fate of 'Pearson Specter Litt', which is in huge jeopardy at the moment. Seeing Jessica and Louis walk through the empty firm was heartbreaking and the same time indication that Season 6 is also going to be about rejuvenation of the firm.
There are mistakes in this episodes, you can find them in every episode of every series for that matter, but the fact that Suits can actually take such a huge gamble made me give it 10/10. Superb work writers, acting cast and undoubtedly, the sound department. You just proved that this show is indeed legendary, looking forward to season 6.